TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 6TH FEBRUARY 2025)
“He who plans to do evil will be called a mischief-maker.
The plans of the foolish and the thought of foolishness are sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to men.
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” Proverbs 24:8-10 AMP
WELCOME TO THE 37th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
Today is a great day. It does not matter who says what!! All we know is this, our God reigns.
He reigns over principalities, over powers, over spiritual wickedness in high places, and over every dark powers.
He reigns over our lives too, making it difficult for devils to reign over us. Yes, the Bible teaches that if God reign over you, no demon can reign over you.
I think we can close this devotion on that note, and just spend the rest of the day thinking about that.
If you see demons reigning over people, it’s because Christ is not reigning over them. There is no nation, government, people, tribe, family or church whose God is the LORD that devils can reign over or oppress.
God has set this season aside to bless and build us up. Until we are built up, we cannot have the spiritual strength to survive the horrors of the last days.
Ours is a terminal generation, hence the building of our faith with the building blocks of scriptural revelation, is the central work of the Holy Spirit today.
Scriptural Revelations are the building blocks of the human spirit. The human spirit can only be built by exposing it to scriptural revelations. Once it is built, it will have the strength not to faint in the day of adversity.
This morning God want to school us again in certain matters of the kingdom.
Whenever God want to bless a people, He will first school them so that they can develop capacity for the blessing. Schooling in the things of God has always been the prelude to significant and spectacular blessings.
God has never blessed a people significantly without first schooling them. The nation of Israel comes to mind at this point.
WHEN GOD SAY TO YOU, GET READY TO BE BLESSED, IT ALSO MEANS GET READY TO BE SCHOOLED.
If you read the book of Deuteronomy – Moses’ Valedictory speech – you will realize that they were first schooled in the things of God before they inherited the promise land.
The Bible made it clear that God schooled them in just one thing. And they qualified for the blessing. That thing was, living the earthly life by “not living by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
The Bible says,
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 NKJV
God’s schooling process could be painful like the one in this scripture, but His ultimate vision is to make us KNOW.
Without knowing there can be no significant blessings. Revelation grants clearance for blessings.
For Israel they were to know that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed from the mouth of God so that they can enter the blessings of living in the promised land.
Sadly, they learned that for forty painful years. God never designed that it takes that long, but it did.
The reason was their level of readiness and submission. It is a thing of God “not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceed from the mouth of God.” It is not a thing of man or devils, and it took them forty years to learn that.
Sometimes God’s schooling process takes that long not because of anything on our part but everything on His part.
For instance, if the blessing coming our way is big, it will take a longer time to be schooled for it. God will never put His new wine in any old wine skin. He will have to create another skin for His new wine blessing.
THE CREATION FOR SOME IS WHAT TAKES TIME.
Yours could be long and mine longer, but at the end of the day, the wine or blessing will have a formidable wine skin to live in and serve the souls of men.
While the wine represents that blessing of the Holy Spirit, and what He wants to pour into our lives, the wine skin represents a man’s capacity to carry what God want to pour into his life.
The creation of the wine skin represents the construction of a man’s internal life to suit what the LORD want to do with him through the blessing He wants to pour into his life.
But when God is dealing with people who must play a role in their own schooling process, there are other things that determines how long the wine skin takes to be formed.
Some of them are as follows;
1. The significance of the blessing God is preparing them for.
2. The people’s response to His dealings, and
3. How long have they been in spiritual degradation and ignorance.
In fact, there are people who will need to remain in God’s school all their lives.
The reason is simple; the enemy has damaged everything in their sanctuary (internal life) and because of their lack of proper response to God, it will take a longer time for them to recover fully.
Israel took a longer time because God had scheduled that they finished schooling in 40 days then enter the purpose of the schooling – which was the blessing of the land of Canaan thereafter.
But their slow response turned the 40 days God scheduled into 40 years!
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF UNDERGRADUATES WHO TOOK LONGER YEARS TO DO A COURSE OF VERY SHORT YEARS?
That was what happened to Israel, and I am afraid it is happening to many in the Church today. Some with a worse case than others because they do not even have proper spiritual leaders that Heaven may use to school them.
The determining factors of how long we stay in God’s school of divine process outlined above, are only applicable to those who have been blessed with Apostolic and prophetic Graces from the LORD to school them in His things.
They are not applicable to the lives of those who do not have such teachers of divine will or ways in their walk and talk with God!
If you have not been enrolled in a school, you cannot say you will graduate so and so year. God said in His word,
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Jeremiah 3:15 NKJV
Until God has given you a shepherd His Spirit will use to feed you, you have not been enrolled into His School of divine process. Israel had a Moses that God used to school them. Without Moses, they would not have even known the will and ways of the LORD.
The early Church had people like Peter, James, John, and the rest of the apostles. Timothy had an Apostle Paul for both a spiritual father and guide. Yours cannot be an exception.
You must have a God given shepherd for those determinants to come into force in your life.
Don’t forget what we began this devotional with – we said schooling is God’s way of helping us to build capacity for coming blessings.
God will send men to you – spiritual guides He can use – to school you in His things basically to help you build spiritual capacity for the blessings He wants to pour into your life.
It is not just for the blessings, but for the battles of life also.
HE WANTS US ALL TO HAVE THE CAPACITY FOR HIS BLESSINGS AND FOR THE BATTLES OF LIFE.
A major highlight in our devotional text today says, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” It did not say “if you faint in the day of adversity, your enemies are strong.”
He said, “your strength is small.” That is spiritual capacity being brought into focus.
Lack of spiritual capacity is the reason for all kinds of collapse you see among men. It is the reason for all kinds of defeat, sudden fall, etc. It is important to understand that there are three basic enemies of man. These enemies are the flesh, the devil and the world.
Now, people do not fail because of the presence of the flesh, the devil or the evil and corrupt system of this world.
No! People fail because of the absence of spiritual capacity or internal strength to withstand them. That is why God’s schooling system is for spiritual the building of capacity for blessings and battles.
In the light of this, we can call this year of victory, our year of “spiritual capacity building!” Victory is only possible when men have capacity to conquer the battles of life, and blessings long lasting when we have capacity for them.
As we bring this to a close, let’s consider the subject of building spiritual capacity to resist sin and overcome all sinful habits.
I want you to understand that if you do not spend your days sowing to please the Spirit as a Child of God, you will not have capacity to resist sin and break free from every sinful habit.
The difference between Joseph and Samson was not the anointing upon their lives but the spiritual capacity of each.
Joseph had the capacity to resist the battles of his life, hence overcoming the temptation that stood before him in the person of Potiphar’s wife. But Samson had no capacity to resist the battles of his own life, hence hanging around with harlots and loose women.
If you want to live a Holy Life, it’s as simple as taking a bath each morning; wake up each day and spend quality time with God, sowing to please the Spirit before going out. When you return, do the same before you sleep.
The Bible says you will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Whose leaves will not wither! Hallelujah!
It’s my prayer that the LORD use this word to improve your walk and talk with Him. AMEN!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY.
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. With my whole heart I have sought you; oh, let me not wander from your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me your statutes. Psalm 119:9-11 NKJV